1799:] 
them ; they repofe upon and in them- 
felves, and they are the firft and deareft 
objects of {culpture. But in the beauti- 
ful mythic circle of art, in which thefe 
ifolated and felf-fubfifting natures are 
placed and in repofe, there are {mailer cir- 
cles, where the different figures are con- 
ceived and executed in relation with others : 
each of the Mules, for example, with their 
conduétor Apollo, is conceived and exe- 
«uted feparately, but it becomes yet much 
more interefting in the complete and varied 
choir of the nine filters. When art pafles 
to the impaffioned fignificative, it may 
moreover act in the fame manner ; or it 
prefents to us a circle of figures which 
paffion puts into a mutual relation, as 
Niobe with her children, perlecuted by 
Apollo and Diana; or it fhews us the 
fame work, the movement at the fame 
time with its caufe. We need only men- 
tion here the young man full of grace, 
who is drawing a thorn from his foot, 
the wreftlers, two groups of fawns and 
nymphs at Drefden, and the animated 
group of Laocoon. 
It is with reafon that fo great ftrefs is 
laid on fculpture, becaufe it ftrips man of 
every thing which is not effential to him. 
It is thus, that in this admirable groupe, 
Laocoon is only a fimple name; the artift 
have taken from him his priefthood, all 
that is national and Trojan in him, all 
‘the poetical and mythological acceflories ; 
all in fa&t that mythology has made of 
him is done away; he is only now a 
father with his two fons, menaced with 
death by the bite of two ferpents. Neither 
are thefe animals fent by the gods, but 
enly natural ferpents, potent enough to 
be the deftru&tion of many men; neither 
their form nor their action fhew that they 
are extraordinary creatures fent by the 
gods, to exercife the divine vengeance. 
Conformably to their nature, they ap- 
proach by fliding on the furtace of the 
earth, they inlace and fold round their 
victims, and one of them only bites atter 
having been irritated. If Thad te explain 
this groupe, and if I were unacquainted 
with every other explication, [I fhould 
call it a tragic idyll. A father fleeps at 
the fide of his two fons, they are inlaced 
by two Jerpents, and at the inftant of 
waking, they ftrive to extricate themlelves 
from this living cord. 
This work of art is, above all, ex- 
tremely important by the reprefentation 
of the moment of the action. When in 
fa& a work ought to move before the 
eyes, a fugitive moment fhould be pitched 
upen; no part of the whole ought to 
Obfervations on the Laocoon. 
351 
be found before in this pofition 3 and, in 
a little time after, every part fhould be 
obliged to quit that pofition; it is by 
this means that the work will be always 
animated for millions of f{pectators. 
To feize well the attention of the Lae- 
coon, let us place ourfelves before the 
groupe with our eyes fhut, and at the ne- 
ceflary diftance; let us open and fhut 
them alternately, and we fhail fee all the 
marble in motion; we fhall be afraid to 
find the groupe changed, when we open 
our eyes again. I would readily fay, as 
the groupe is now expofed, it is a flafh of 
lichtning fixed, a wave petvified at the 
inftant when it is approaching the fhore. 
We fee the fame effect when we fee the 
groupe at night, by the light of flam- 
beaux. 
The artift has very wifely reprefented 
the three figures in graduated fituations, 
and which differ from each other. The 
eldeft fon is only interlaced at his extre- 
mities, the other is more fo ; it is efpe- 
pecially the cheft, that the ferpent has 
already interlaced ; he endeavours to de- 
liver himfelf by the motion of his right 
arm; with his left hand, he foftly xe- 
moves the head of the ferpent, to prevent 
it from clafping his breaft once more 5 
the ferpent is on the point of fliding un- 
derneath his hand; 6uf 2t does wot bite. 
The father, on the contrary, would employ 
force to deliver himfelf, as well as his 
two children, from the embraces; he 
gripes one of the two ferpents, who being 
now irritated, bites him in the haunth. 
To explain the pofition of the father, 
both in general, and according to ali the 
parts of the body, it appears to me rea- 
fonable to fuppofe that the momentaneous 
fenfation of the wouud is the principal 
caufe of the whole morement. ‘The fer- 
pent has not bit, but he bites, and he 
bites in the foft and delicate parts of the 
body, above, and a little behind the 
haunch. The pofition of the reftored 
head has never well expreffed the true 
bite ; happily, the traces of the jaws have 
been preierved in the potterior part of the 
ftatue, if thefe very important traces have 
not been loft inthe actual tran{portation of 
this monument. The ferpent indi&s a 
wound on the unhappy Laocoon, precifely 
in the part in which man is very fenfible 
fo every irritation, and, even where the 
flighteft tickling, caufes that motion 
which we fee produced here by the wound: 
the body flies towards the oppofite fide, and 
retires ; the fhoulder preffes downwards, 
the cheft is thrust forward, and the head 
inclines on the fide which has been touch- 
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